


One Way or Another

by el_gilliath



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Angst, M/M, Past Relationship(s), Pre-Slash, Ratings: PG
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-26
Updated: 2012-08-26
Packaged: 2017-11-12 23:16:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/496758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/el_gilliath/pseuds/el_gilliath
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One year ago, Arthur did something stupid</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Way or Another

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this fic eons ago. And then decided, eh, why not write it up and post it. With some heavy editing. I’m sorry in advance if it really sucks.

“Merlin, wait!”

Said Merlin didn’t bother to turn at the cries from his boyfriend. Well ex-boyfriend now. He was tired of being lied too, tired of being betrayed. Most of all by his ‘loving’ _fucking_ (ex now)boyfriend, Arthur Pendragon

“Merlin, please! That was not what it looked like! Please listen to me!”

Merlin turned and watched the beautiful blonde man run towards him.

“It never is with you Arthur” He said, loud enough for the other man to hear, before he got into his car and drove away, fighting with himself not to look in the mirror at the blonde. And said blonde watched the car as it drove away, shoulder slumped in dejection, tears pooling in his eyes.

\-------------------------------------------

1 year later:

Merlin hated Fridays with a passion. Most people might love Fridays, but Merlin hated them. He would take Mondays over a Friday any day. Mondays were a normal start of the week, a normal day, but Fridays… Fridays he had to go to parties. Parties full of rich, snotty people he had to watch. Though his latest client wasn’t a snotty man at any rate, he was still absurdly rich and liked to attend parties. And of course a rich, well-known client needed his Personal Assistant to go with him. And while Merlin usually enjoyed being a PA, his client at the moment, John Dragon, kept telling him about his destiny and how he was one side of a coin. Incomplete. It was more annoying than anything else, and had a habit of irritating him to no end.

Luckily, John never did need him much at the parties, and brought him mostly ‘because a strapping young man as himself should never sit alone on a Friday night’, leaving him free to mostly mingle with other PA’s. And tonight his best friend would be there alongside her ‘lady’. Morgana and Guinevere was a good pair, a born rich famous model&actress and her born poor PA who were the best of friends. 

Merlin envied them now. It had been that way for him too when he has been Arthur’s PA. Merlin on his first big PA job, and Arthur who had just become partner in his father’s firm and needed a PA on his own for the first time. They had started out detesting each other, but had slowly moved on to be the best of friends. And then lovers, after one of Arthur’s drunken escapades. And it had all been so good for a long time, before Arthur had ruined it all. Which gave Merlin all the more reason to hate Fridays. 

“Merlin, your destiny lies ahead!” John Dragon shouted in his ear, and dragged Merlin into the reception hall for this Friday’s grand party. The party was hosted by Camelot Productions, who were celebrating 20 years of prosperity, and everyone who was someone and their mothers were invited and most likely attending. But that wasn’t uncommon when Uther Pendragon himself hosted a party at his grand castle. Merlin himself didn’t really want to be there, as Uther Pendragon was Arthur’s father, but John had told him that Arthur was away on business in America and wouldn’t be attending the party. In certain circles what happened between Merlin and Arthur was well known, and Uther had been the one who recommended Merlin to John. Uther might not have always approved of his son’s relationship because of Merlin working for him, but he did like Merlin, and knew what an excellent PA he was.

“This is where I leave you young Merlin. Go mingle, and discover your destiny!” John said as soon as they had delivered their coats to the wardrobe staff and left Merlin standing in the hallway. Merlin just sighed and looked as his boss flounced off to greet the first person he knew. He should be used to John’s antics after a year, but they never failed to annoy him.

“Merlin! What are you doing here?!?” Gwen’s voice said to his right, making Merlin turned to her with a puzzled look on his face. She looked quite nervous and Morgana who was standing behind her had the same look on her face, though more disguised. Which puzzled him even more as Morgana was never nervous.

“I’m here with John. My client. Why shouldn’t I be here?”

“Of course you should be here! I’m glad you’re here! Well, not just you, I’m glad people are here in general. People like you. PA’s and other staff. Like me too. And guests! Guests are good!”

“Gwen, why are you so nervous?”

“I’m not nervous! Why would I be nervous! Morgana, tell Merlin I’m not nervous!”

“Arthur’s here” Morgana said instead, sending him a small, sad smile.

“Oh” Merlin replied, swallowing loudly. “I thought he was too busy to attend”

“I was. But I cleared my schedule when Father told me you and John would be here”

Merlin closed his eyes. Suddenly all John’s recent talk of destiny was making sense. The manipulative bastard.

“Hello Arthur”

“Hi. It’s good to see you”

Merlin opened his eyes and looked at the blonde now standing in front of him. He looked as beautiful as always, dressed in a dove grey Dolce Gabbana suit that fit him perfectly, a black silk shirt with a matching black tie and black shoes completing the image. Merlin found the familiar lust rising in him, and tried (though mostly unsuccessfully) to squash it down. Arthur gave him a tentative smile and Merlin wanted nothing more than to hit him.

“I can’t way the same for you”

Arthur nodded. “I guess I deserved that”

“Arthur, you cheated on me. You deserve plenty more than that”

“Merlin-”

“No. Had I known you would be here, I wouldn’t have come and you knew that. And for the record, I hate being tricked” Merlin finished loudly, his eyes finding Uther’s and John’s who had come into the hallway. He was so pissed off, he didn’t notice Arthur’s eyes filling with tears, or the sad smiles the girls sent him.

“Then I’ll go”

“Arthur!”

“No Morgana, Merlin is right. I deserved that” Arthur said and looked at Merlin, the look on his face so devastated it almost broke Merlin’s resolve. 

“I thought you knew I would be here. I was told that you knew” Arthur whispered as he moved past Merlin, but Merlin heard him clear as day.

\-------------------------------------------

The next Friday Merlin was in an even worse mood. His hatred for Fridays was still present, but seeing Arthur had brought him into a deep funk. He still missed the blonde more than he ever imagined possible, and the devastated look on his face as he left the party was burnt into his mind, playing over and over again whenever he thought about him. It was messing with his mind big time, and while thankfully he didn’t have to attend a party that evening, he had been roped into hanging out with Gwen and Morgana on one of their girl’s nights which made him even more morose. He might be a gay man, but he wasn’t that gay. But Gwen had whined until he conceded, so he would hang out with them and try his best to have a good time. Though watching an interview Morgana had appeared on that same morning wasn’t his idea of fun. Even if he had to agree that yes, Morgana looked lovely and had done a very good interview.

“Why are we watching this again?”

“Because there is something you need to see” Morgana said and sat down next to him on the couch, trapping him between him and Gwen on the couch as the next guest was called on the show. Merlin turned rigid with tension and tried his best to get up, but the girls had him well and truly trapped, forcing him to watch as the next guest came onto the screen and sat down in the chair next to Morgana after greeting the host.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are making television history!” the host said, smiling widely. “Never before had the children of Uther Pendragon been interviewed at the same time on national television, and now they are both here with us! Arthur, Morgana, thank you so much for agreeing to this”

“It is our pleasure” Arthur said with his ever-present smirk. Goodness Merlin hated his good-looking ass at times.

“And probably about time considering all the rumours surrounding us” Morgana added, causing Arthur to snort.

“Yes, what _do_ you think about the romance rumours that keep popping up?”

“It’s not fun, Arthur is my brother. If not by the same name or blood, then by everything else. I may just be Uther’s ward, but we’ve grown up as siblings. In the same house since I was 8 and Arthur was 7”

“And besides, Morgana is not pretty enough for someone like me” Arthur added with a cheeky smile at the host while Morgana delivered a whooping smack to the back of his head, causing the audience to laugh.

“So is there anyone in your lives, romantically?”

“I do have a certain someone I’m seeing” Morgana said with a small smile “but it’s too early to say yet so I’d rather keep it too myself at the moment”

“And as much as I’d like to ask, I’d rather keep your father off of my neck. How about you Arthur, anything to share?”

“If you listen to the tabloids and gossip shows, I’ve been dating Sophia Avalon in the past three months” Arthur said, causing another laugh to rumble through the audience.

“Is there some truth to these rumours?”

“Sorry, no. Sophia is a nice woman but not for me. There has only been one person I’ve ever loved. Sadly I’m not with that person anymore”

“May I ask why not?”

“I did something very stupid one year ago. This person dealt with the rumours of me dating other people remarkably, never said anything, never got jealous. But one year ago, a girl came up to me at a club opening I was attending and kissed me. Stupid as I was, I kissed her back. I had a fight earlier that day with my father about Camelot, and I wanted to piss him off as much as I could and a very public kiss with some unknown person would do that nicely. And because of my rash actions and inability to think, I lost the most important person in my life”

“Does this have anything to do with your PA that quit so suddenly? Merlin Emrys?”

A sad smile appeared on Arthur’s face, and Morgana grabbed his hand in an obvious show of support.

“Merlin was my nemesis for a long time, seriously, we did not get along. Then he grew up, and so did I. When he first started working for me, I was 21 and still a brat. Merlin has just turned 20, on his first big solo job as a PA. Eventually we became friends. Then we became more than friends, and I fell in love with him. I was probably in love with him longer than I knew myself, than he knew. And luckily for me, he fell in love with me as well. But then, who wouldn’t fall in love with me” he said, a weak smile on his face as he looked at the host, who smiled back at him.

“What happens now?”

Arthur laughed quietly. “We’ll see. I doubt he’s watching this, but I don’t plan on giving up. Uh, can I say something to the camera?”

“Of course, go ahead”

“Merlin, I love you. I was wrong, and I hurt you for a petty argument. Last Friday was my father trying to fix this because he believes it was his fault it happened in the first place. But it wasn’t. The argument might have been why I kissed her, but it was my own faulty reasoning that led to it. I can never tell you enough how sorry I am, and I don’t know if I can ever make it up to you. But I want to try, because I do still love you. I would try every day if you let me, every day for the rest of our lives if you give me the chance. Please give me the chance” Arthur said, looking directly into the camera, the studio completely silent around him.

That’s when Gwen clicked the pause button, and looked at her male best friend, who was still looking at the screen. She looked at Morgana, who was now holding Merlin’s hand, like it held Arthur’s on the tape.

“He was... so sad for a very long time. But he decided to do everything in his power to get you back about 6 months ago. The party was supposed to be his start, because Uther really did tell him you knew he was coming and didn’t mind. He figured that was a good starting point to get back in your good graces, get you used to seeing him again and then start making up for it all. But when you reacted the way you did... he begged me to let him come along on the show. And he just outed himself for you. That was always one of his biggest fears, and he just overcame it because of you. He’s willing to do everything Merlin, that’s how much he loves you”

“He just did more than he needed too. He did not need to out himself for me Morgana, I was always perfectly happy with it just being just him and me. I didn’t need the world to know, I was happy with just you, Gwen, Uther and our other friends knowing”

“And now that it is out? Pun intended”

Merlin looked at her and smiled a very tentative smile, the smallest glimmer of hope in his eyes “It meant everything”

And as Merlin turned to look at Arthur’s face still frozen on the screen, Gwen and Morgana looked at each other and knew deep within their heart that it would work out. One way or another.


End file.
